Oceanic Boundary Conditions for Jakobshavn Glacier.
Part II: Provenance and Sources of Variability of Disko
Bay and Ilulissat Icefjord Waters, 1990–2011
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Citation
Gladish, Carl V., David M. Holland, and Craig M. Lee. “Oceanic
Boundary Conditions for Jakobshavn Glacier. Part II:
Provenance and Sources of Variability of Disko Bay and Ilulissat
Icefjord Waters, 1990–2011.” J. Phys. Oceanogr. 45, no. 1
(January 2015): 33–63. © 2015 American Meteorological Society
As Published
http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-14-0045.1
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American Meteorological Society
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http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/97577
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JANUARY 2015
GLADISH ET AL.
33
Oceanic Boundary Conditions for Jakobshavn Glacier. Part II: Provenance and Sources of
Variability of Disko Bay and Ilulissat Icefjord Waters, 1990–2011*
CARL V. GLADISH1
New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
DAVID M. HOLLAND
New York University, New York, New York
CRAIG M. LEE
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
(Manuscript received 11 March 2014, in final form 22 October 2014)
ABSTRACT
Jakobshavn Glacier, west Greenland, has responded to temperature changes in Ilulissat Icefjord, into which
it terminates. Basin waters in this fjord exchange with neighboring Disko Bay waters of a particular density at
least once per year. This study determined the provenance of this isopycnic layer for 1990–2011 using hydrographic data from Cape Farewell to Baffin Bay. The warm Atlantic-origin core of the West Greenland
Current never filled deep Disko Bay or entered the fjord basin because of bathymetric impediments on the
west Greenland shelf. Instead, equal parts of Atlantic water and less-saline polar water filled the fjord basin
and bathed Jakobshavn Glacier. The polar water fraction was often traceable to the East/West Greenland
Current but sometimes to the colder Baffin Current. The huge annual temperature cycle on West Greenland
Current isopycnals did not propagate into deep Disko Bay or the fjord basin because isopycnals over the west
Greenland shelf were depressed during the warm autumn/winter phase of the cycle.
Ilulissat Icefjord basin waters were anomalously cool in summer 2010. This was not because of the record
low NAO index winter of 2009/10 or atmospheric anomalies over Baffin Bay but, possibly, because of high
freshwater flux through the Canadian Arctic and a weak West Greenland Current in early 2010. Together, this
caused cold Baffin Current water to flood the west Greenland shelf. Subpolar gyre warming associated with
the NAO anomaly in winter 2009/10 was more likely responsible for the record warm Disko Bay and Ilulissat
Icefjord basin waters of 2011/12.
1. Introduction
In the late 1990s and early 2000s several outlet glaciers
around Greenland began to rapidly thin in their lower
reaches because of changes in their velocity fields, especially
* Supplemental information related to this paper is available at
the Journals Online website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-140045.s1.
1
Current affiliation: Department of Earth, Atmospheric and
Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Corresponding author address: Carl Gladish, MIT Bldg 54-1423,
77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge MA, 02139.
E-mail: carlg@mit.edu
DOI: 10.1175/JPO-D-14-0045.1
Ó 2015 American Meteorological Society
the trio of major glaciers: Jakobshavn Glacier, Helheim
Glacier, and Kangerdlugssuaq Glacier (Thomas et al. 2000,
2003; Krabill et al. 2004; Rignot and Kanagaratnam 2006;
Howat et al. 2011). These glaciers all terminate in deep
fjords connected by bathymetric troughs to the continental
shelf break, and the observed accelerations have been attributed to changes near the termini leading to a reduction
of the stresses tending to hold back ice flow (Thomas 2004;
Howat et al. 2005; Joughin et al. 2004).
Jakobshavn Glacier (JG) terminates in the 750–800m-deep Ilulissat Icefjord (IIf) that opens into Disko Bay
(DB) to the west (Fig. 1). Thomas et al. (2003)
reported the onset of rapid thinning of Jakobshavn
Glacier after 1997 and suggested that increased melting
beneath the floating ice tongue still present at that time
was related to the observed warming of the West
34
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
VOLUME 45
FIG. 1. Southern Baffin Bay and the west Greenland continental shelf west of DB, with
bathymetry. The inset graph shows the depths along the ED (following the black path), which vary
from 900 m in the inner ED south of Qeqertarsuaq (red circle) to 300 m at the EDS. Just south of
Ilulissat (red star) is the entrance to IIf. A typical longitude of the terminus of JG is marked.
Overlaid colored lines show the paths for the interpolated vertical sections in Fig. 3. Mooring
locations just north of Davis Strait are shown. The inset map shows an overview of Greenland. The
warm IC and WGC, along with the cooler EGC and BC are shown schematically.
Greenland Current (WGC) between 1994 and 1999.
Holland et al. (2008) mapped the warming of subsurface
waters along west Greenland (WG) in the late 1990s and
traced its origin to a shift in large-scale winds over the
North Atlantic. The warming of West Greenland Current waters was confirmed by closer analyses of available
data for west Greenland (Myers et al. 2007, 2009) and in
Disko Bay (Hansen et al. 2012; Myers and Ribergaard
2013). Motyka et al. (2011) combined glacier velocity
and thickness data along with hydrographic data to
quantify the ocean-triggering hypothesis. They concluded that the thinning from 1985 to 2001 was consistent with a 25% increase in basal melting under the ice
tongue at Jakobshavn Glacier, which was in turn consistent with a 18C warming of fjord waters.
More generally, waters originating in the subtropical
Atlantic have been directly observed near the termini of
the major glaciers undergoing change in recent years
(Straneo et al. 2012). Greenland-wide remote sensing
data and independent ocean reanalyses (Seale et al.
2011; Rignot et al. 2012) also support the hypothesis that
ocean-warming triggered the nearly simultaneous accelerations of these glaciers. Although about half of the
recent Greenland Ice Sheet mass loss has been attributed
to increased outlet glacier discharge, many details are still
unclear (Straneo and Heimbach 2013; Joughin et al.
2012). Here, we focus on Jakobshavn Glacier and observations from west Greenland waters. We aim to clarify
how bathymetry and ocean currents in the surrounding
region control how ocean heat is delivered to the vicinity
of Jakobshavn Glacier.
In Part I of this work we focused on the fjord-scale
dynamics related to temperature variability in Ilulissat
Icefjord (Gladish et al. 2015). Hydrographic surveys in
this fjord showed that the 500-m-thick basin layer is
nearly homogeneous in temperature and potential density. The basin layer is a continuation of a certain isopycnic
layer in Disko Bay, where the layer is much thinner and is
found at depths equal to or somewhat shallower than the
sill depth (245 m). Renewal of the basin occurs in as little
as 1 month when subglacial freshwater discharged into the
fjord provides sufficient buoyancy to eject basin waters
over the sill at intermediate depth. In this way, interannual
temperature variations in the basin track the interannual
variations in Disko Bay within a certain potential density
class (probably 27.20 # su # 27.31 kg m23, going back to
at least the 1980s).
Here, we extend the scope of inquiry to west Greenland from Cape Farewell to Baffin Bay (Fig. 1). Using
observations only, we attempt to determine the provenance and sources of variability of Disko Bay waters in
this density class from 1990 to 2011.
JANUARY 2015
GLADISH ET AL.
Two major currents flow toward the vicinity of the
continental shelf west of Disko Bay: the West Greenland
Current and Baffin Current (BC) (Fig. 1). The West
Greenland Current has long been recognized as the
source of the warmest subsurface waters in Disko Bay
(Andersen 1981). In the long-term summer mean, the
West Greenland Current is made up of low-salinity waters on the shelf and saltier waters below the surface layer
over the shelf slope (Myers et al. 2009). The shelf portion
of the West Greenland Current is primarily an extension
of the freshwater-laden East Greenland Current (EGC)
(Fig. 1) that carries waters of Arctic origin down the east
coast of Greenland (Rudels et al. 2002). Next to the East
Greenland Current is the warm Irminger Current, which,
after rounding Cape Farewell, supplies warm and saline
waters to the shelf slope part of the West Greenland
Current. Low-salinity waters are also carried by the Baffin
Current, which flows southward along the western side of
Baffin Bay (Tang et al. 2004). The variability in Disko Bay
with which we are concerned is generally traceable to
changes involving the West Greenland Current and the
Baffin Current.
In section 2, we present the datasets we used. The two
main components were archived conductivity–temperature–
depth (CTD) profiles from summer and autumn between Cape Farewell and Baffin Bay from 1990 to
2011 and moorings deployed across Davis Strait (DS)
from 2004 to 2011. Most of the CTD data have previously been presented (Myers et al. 2007, 2009; Myers
and Ribergaard 2013; Hansen et al. 2012). The mooring
data have also been recently analyzed with an emphasis
on determining freshwater fluxes across Davis Strait
(Curry and Lee 2011; Curry et al. 2014). Others have
previously studied variability along the west Greenland
shelf in Baffin Bay and in Disko Bay. Our contribution
here is to account for interannual variability—as well as
the lack of annual variability—in the density class of
Disko Bay waters that fill Ilulissat Icefjord basin and
constitute the major part of the oceanic thermal boundary conditions of Jakobshavn Glacier. With our observations inside Ilulissat Icefjord we were able to trace the
origin of waters confronting Jakobshavn Glacier with
more precision than previous studies. We found, for instance, that the warmest west Greenland waters mapped
in Holland et al. (2008) did not reach Jakobshavn Glacier.
We first used the Davis Strait mooring data to classify
all waters appearing in Davis Strait throughout the year
(section 3). Using the archive of CTD profiles we were
then able to account for specific summer by summer
variability in Disko Bay/Ilulissat Icefjord waters between 1990 and 2011 (section 4b).
Curry et al. (2014) found that each year the subsurface
temperature maximum of the West Greenland Current
35
is warmest from November to January and coolest in
April to June. The flow of the West Greenland Current
across Davis Strait is also strongest in November to
January (Tang et al. 2004; Cuny et al. 2005). However, in
Gladish et al. (2015) we found a remarkable lack of
subannual variability in Ilulissat Icefjord basin and deep
Disko Bay compared to the annual autumn/winter pulse
of warm water in the West Greenland Current. The next
major aim of this paper, therefore, was to resolve this
puzzle using the Davis Strait mooring data (section 4c).
The most conspicuous anomaly in Ilulissat Icefjord
temperatures (observations covering 2009–13) occurred
in 2010, when, for a single summer, temperatures in the
fjord basin were as cool as they likely were in the 1980s
(Gladish et al. 2015). In section 5, we investigate possible
connections of this anomaly to large-scale and regional
atmospheric anomalies. We find, however, that it is
more likely that an anomalous pulse of freshwater entering the Baffin Current from the Canadian Arctic in
early 2010 was the immediate cause.
2. Observational data
a. Hydrographic data
We downloaded 2300 CTD profiles from the ICES
database1 covering southwest (SW) Greenland from
1990 until 2010. These profiles were collected mainly by
the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR)
and the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) and
have been quality controlled by the DMI (Ribergaard
2013). We used an additional 326 CTD profiles collected
by the GINR (from 1991, 1993, 1994, 2007, and 2011) not
yet available from the ICES database (A. Rosing-Asvid
2012, personal communication; S. Rysgaard 2012, personal communication). Water properties in Disko Bay
have been monitored by researchers of the Arctic Station on Disko Island for several decades (Hansen et al.
2012). We used 201 Arctic Station profiles collected since
1990. We also used CTD and expendable CTD (XCTD)
profiles we collected in Disko Bay and Ilulissat Icefjord
since 2007, previously presented in Gladish et al. (2015).
From 2004 to 2011, CTD sections in the vicinity of
Davis Strait were occupied annually by University of
Washington researchers (Curry and Lee 2011; Curry et al.
2014). We used 468 of these profiles, downloaded from
the Arctic Observing Network archive.2 We also used
data from the approximately 25 temperature, salinity, and
pressure (no other tracer properties available) moorings
1
2
ocean.ices.dk/HydChem/
www.aoncadis.org
36
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
VOLUME 45
FIG. 2. (a) Circular markers indicate depths and longitudes of moorings deployed between 2004 and 2011 in Davis Strait. Moorings were
collected into color-coded groups according to geographic proximity and the similarity of water properties sampled. Colored lines outline
waters from the September 2004 CTD section along the Davis Strait mooring line (stations marked by triangles) according to the region of
u–SA space in which the data fall. (b) The u–SA properties sampled by each mooring group (besides the Baffin Shelf group), color coded
according to the legend in (a). Background contours are of potential density anomaly su. The plot order was randomized so that colors do
not obscure each other in a biased manner. Colored contours capture the u–SA regions approximately traced out by various mooring
groups, which we define and name in Table 2. No moorings sampled BBDeepW, but this water was detected in the CTD survey [(a)]. The
u–SA definitions of WFjW and CFjW and AW are also shown.
and 10 velocity moorings that have been deployed nearly
continuously across Davis Strait as part of the same
project. Depths and locations for these moorings varied
slightly from year to year, but multiyear time series were
assembled from disparate deployments for the stations
shown at nominal locations and depths in Figs. 1 and 2a.
The raw mooring data contained spikes and intervals
of unphysical salinities and densities that could be confounded with genuine variability, yet attempts to automatically remove these could suppress true variability.
Our approach was based on the premise that temperature
T and Absolute Salinity SA typically do not vary independently but fall approximately along a curve T(SA)
(see the appendix). After removing questionable samples, the mooring time series were bin averaged over 6-h
intervals before subsequent processing.
As in Gladish et al. (2015), we used Absolute Salinity
throughout this paper, as recommended by IOC et al.
(2010). Profiles were interpolated and averaged into 2.0-m
vertical bins.
b. Bathymetry
Bathymetry was extracted from International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean version 3 (IBCAO V3)
(Jakobsson et al. 2012) at latitudes where it is available and
otherwise from the 1-minute global gridded elevations/
bathymetry for the world (ETOPO1) dataset.3 The Egedesminde Dyb (ED), a 300- to 900-m trough cutting across
the continental shelf from the shelf break into Disko Bay,
is the main entrance for waters destined for Ilulissat Icefjord basin (Fig. 1). The shallowest part of the trough,
southwest of Qeqertarsuaq, is an important barrier for
deep water. We refer to this barrier as the Egedesminde
Dyb Sill (EDS). The other important bathymetric impediment is the Iceberg Bank (i.e., sill) at the mouth of
Ilulissat Icefjord (Fig. 1). Acoustic mapping over most of the
crest and seaward apron of this sill (Schumann et al. 2012)
shows that the fjord mouth is shallower than 200 m except in
a region in the northern part of the mouth where there is
a saddle point at 245-m depth. Over the southern third of
the mouth, the sill appears to be shallower than 100 m.
c. Meteorological data
We used the ERA-Interim reanalysis product from the
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
(ECMWF) (Dee et al. 2011) to look for possible causal
connections between surface atmospheric variables over
3
www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/global.html
JANUARY 2015
37
GLADISH ET AL.
Davis Strait and Baffin Bay and ocean temperatures in
Disko Bay and Ilulissat Icefjord. It is known that the
ERA-Interim reanalysis lacks certain details of the coastal
winds around Greenland, compared to the recently published higher-resolution Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR)
(Bromwich et al. 2014, manuscript submitted to Quart.
J. Roy. Meteor. Soc.). The ERA-Interim product has, however, been shown to better correlate with surface temperature, humidity, and wind speed observations than six
other reanalysis products (not including the ASR) covering the Arctic (Lindsay et al. 2014). Surface fluxes over the
Labrador Sea in an earlier version of the ECMWF analysis agreed to within observational uncertainties with shipbased observations (Renfrew et al. 2002).
3. Fjord water provenance
Hydrographic data collected in Ilulissat Icefjord from
2007 to 2013 show that the deep basin waters (east of the
sill and west of the marine terminus of Jakobshavn Glacier) underwent interannual temperature variability of
up to 18C but with compensating salinity variability
that left the potential density of the basin nearly constant
(in the range 27.20 # su # 27.31) over all years
(Gladish et al. 2015). Similarly, the density of sill depth
waters in Disko Bay near Qeqertarsuaq have not changed
significantly since at least 1980, so we adopt the hypothesis that waters in the 27.20 # su # 27.31 range filled
Ilulissat Icefjord basin and bathed Jakobshavn Glacier
since at least 1980. The constancy of density at 250 m
reflects, presumably, stability in the nature of the densitydriven exchange between the west Greenland shelf and
Disko Bay.
From here on, we understand variability of Ilulissat
Icefjord basin waters to mean variability of Disko Bay
waters in the range 27.20 # su # 27.31. A record of
summer potential temperatures in Disko Bay in this
category appears in Table 1. The years 1998, 1999, 2008,
2009, and 2011–13 were distinctly warmer than other
years, falling into what we call the Warm Fjord Water
(WFjW) category, while 1990, 1994, 2004, 2006, and
2010 were at least 18C cooler than the warmest years,
falling in the Cold Fjord Water (CFjW) category.
Definitions for WFjW and CFjW appear in Table 2. We
emphasize that in summer of 2010, when CFjW was
directly observed in Ilulissat Icefjord, the fjord basin
waters were as cool as they likely were in years prior to
the late 1990s retreat and acceleration of Jakobshavn
Glacier.
a. Regional water mass definitions from moorings
To account for the variability of Disko Bay/Ilulissat
Icefjord waters, we began by grouping the Davis Strait
TABLE 1. Mean potential temperature for water in Disko Bay in
two different density categories in summer [June–August (JJA)].
Temperatures in the first density class cooler than 1.78C (warmer
than 2.78C) are shown in italics (bold) to highlight the years when
Ilulissat Icefjord basin likely contained CFjW (WFjW), as defined
in Table 2.
Year
27.20 # su # 27.31
su . 27.31
1990
1991–93
1994
1995/96
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
1.27
—
1.13
—
2.29
2.70
2.74
2.18
2.19
2.66
2.41
1.67
1.85
1.68
2.18
3.12
2.70
1.05
3.07
2.89
2.73
1.88
—
1.52
—
3.11
3.28
3.44
3.13
2.58
3.11
2.97
2.47
2.69
2.59
3.14
3.62
3.41
2.35
3.56
3.66
3.35
moorings according to depth and location (Fig. 2a). For
example, the moorings labeled C1, C2, and C3 near
100-m depth constitute the Baffin Bay Arctic Water
(BBArcW) group. In Fig. 2b, the light green points from
the BBArcW moorings fill out a compact region in the
lower-left area of u–SA space, which was then slightly
idealized and used to define the BBArcW water mass,
as recorded in Table 2. Similarly, we also defined Baffin
Bay Intermediate Water (BBIntW), Baffin Bay Thermocline Water (BBTherW), Modified Irminger Water
(ModIrmW), and upper-modified Irminger Water
(UpModIrmW). Although no moorings sampled it, we
also defined Baffin Bay Deep Water (BBDeepW)
based on the autumn CTD surveys. Baffin shelf waters
and Greenland shelf waters with su , 27.0 never
overlap with Ilulissat Icefjord basin waters and were
not categorized. Interpolated data from the September
2004 CTD section across the mooring line show a synoptic picture of the distribution of these water types
(Fig. 2a).
DISCUSSION OF WATER MASSES
Notice that Fig. 2b can be regarded as a highly distorted vertical section across Davis Strait, rotated
counterclockwise by 908, since depth increases with
density while temperature tends to increase to the east
38
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
VOLUME 45
TABLE 2. Water mass definitions.
Water mass
WFjW
Definition
27.20 # su # 27.31
3:25 2 2:75
(su 2 27:20) 1 2:75
u#
27:31 2 27:20
u$
CFjW
2:75 2 2:25
(su 2 27:20) 1 2:25
27:31 2 27:20
27:20 # su # 27:31
2:2 2 1:5
(su 2 27:20) 1 1:5
27:31 2 27:20
1:2 2 0:5
(su 2 27:20) 1 0:5
u$
27:31 2 27:20
26.0 # su # 27.20
21.9 # u # 21.0
27.0 # su # 27.4
1:9 2 (20:5)
(su 2 27:0) 2 0:5
u#
27:4 2 27:0
0:5 2 (21:0)
(su 2 27:20) 2 1:0
u$
27:4 2 27:20
u $ 21.0
27.4 # su # 27.675
u # 3.0
3:0 2 0:5
(su 2 27:4) 1 0:5
u$
27:675 2 27:4
u $ 20.4
u $ 216.0su 1 442.8
u $ 2.0su 1 54.45
u $ 223.6364su 1 655.0.36
27.0 # su # 27.4
u # 6.0
2:0 2 (20:5)
(su 2 27:0) 2 0:5
u$
27:4 2 27:0
27.4 # su # 27.675
3.0 # u # 6.0
su # 27.7
u # 08C
4.5 # u # 6.5
34.8 # Sp # 35.1 (psu)
Comment
Observed filling Ilulissat Icefjord basin summer
2009 and 2011–13.
Observed filling Ilulissat Icefjord basin summer 2010.
u#
BBArcW
BBTherW
BBIntW
BBDeepW
UpModIrmW
ModIrmW
PWS
AW
in Davis Strait. BBDeepW, which exhibited little variability, occupied a tiny region of u–SA space and a small
region of physical space across Davis Strait. (BBDeepW
fills all of Baffin Bay below 1000-m depth.)
Adjacent to this in u–SA space and in physical space,
BBIntW occupied a small region in u–SA space but
a huge fraction of the area of the mooring line CTD
section (Fig. 2a). Our definition of BBIntW is essentially
the same as that of Tang et al. (2004), who refer to it as
west Greenland Intermediate Water. They found that
most of Baffin Bay from 300- to 800-m depth is filled
with this water type, which enters Baffin Bay as warm
West Greenland Current water and is gradually cooled
as it circulates cyclonically around the bay.
What we here call BBArcW is called cold intermediate layer (CIL) water by Cuny et al. (2005), who
Southward-flowing waters over Baffin slope.
Cool water typically underlying BBArcW and
overlying BBIntW.
Winter-cooled water at middepths of Baffin Bay.
Dense waters below Davis Strait sill depth.
Intermediate depth waters over the west Greenland
continental slope.
Deep water over the west Greenland slope.
Cold waters in the East Greenland Current
(Rudels et al. 2002).
Definition from Sutherland and Pickart (2008).
found that it enters Baffin Bay from the Canadian Arctic
Archipelago near Lancaster Sound. This water mass
contains the subsurface temperature minimum within
the low-salinity and cold Baffin Current (Tang et al.
2004).
Underlying the near-freezing BBArcW and overlying
the warmer BBIntW is BBTherW, which falls along
a line in u–SA space (Fig. 2b). Since this is a thin layer
with a large thermal gradient, it is sensible to call it
thermocline water and to attribute its characteristics to
mixing between the overlying BBArcW and the underlying BBIntW. Note that on each su contour between
27.0 and 27.4, BBTherW was the coldest water in Baffin
Bay. Curry and Lee (2011) refer to all the water below
BBArcW as transition water (TrW) and therefore show
TrW as filling Davis Strait to the seafloor.
JANUARY 2015
GLADISH ET AL.
What we here call ModIrmW is a modified version of
Irminger Current (IC) waters east of Cape Farewell.
The Irminger Current flows southwest over the southeast
(SE) Greenland shelf slope alongside the low-salinity
East Greenland Current, forming a temperature and
density front approximately above the shelf break. On
the warm side of this front, Irminger Current waters
have characteristic potential density su 5 27.5–27.6,
potential temperature 58–68C, and salinity of 35.0–
35.05 on the practical salinity scale (Våge et al. 2011).
These properties, already somewhat modified from
‘‘pure’’ Irminger water over the Reykjanes Ridge, are
squarely within the definition of Atlantic Water (AW)
given in Sutherland and Pickart (2008) in the context of studying the East Greenland Current. The
definition of AW from Sutherland and Pickart (2008)
overlaps with the warmer end of our ModIrmW
(Fig. 2b). These warm waters flow around Cape Farewell and then flow north over the southwest Greenland
shelf slope, suffering some modification because of
mixing with adjacent Labrador Seawater (Bacon et al.
2002; Cuny et al. 2005; Myers et al. 2009). Figure 2b
shows, however, that ModIrmW was too dense to ever
gain entry to Ilulissat Icefjord (i.e., it is denser than
WFjW and CFjW and has not been observed in Ilulissat Icefjord).
It is UpModIrmW that contains WFjW and CFjW
in u–SA space. In September 2004, for instance,
UpModIrmW flowed alongside the upper shelf slope
between depths of about 100 to 200 m (Fig. 2a). In
summer and autumn CTD surveys, UpModIrmW was
found roughly midway along a mixing line between the
temperature maximum in the West Greenland Current
and the less-saline waters on the Greenland shelf.
Therefore, not only the waters above the sill depth but
also the waters filling Ilulissat Icefjord basin contained
a significant fraction of polar water (i.e., waters of Arctic
origin). Myers and Ribergaard (2013) proposed that
temperature variability of low-salinity polar water could
impact the thermal boundary conditions of Jakobshavn
Glacier. We have confirmed that this is true to an even
greater extent than those authors perhaps meant to
suggest.
b. Spatial distribution of water masses, Baffin Bay to
Disko Bay
Using CTD data described in section 2, we assembled
vertical sections of potential temperature from Baffin
Bay to Jakobshavn Glacier approximately following the
path of Egedesminde Dyb (Fig. 1) for 2004 and 2006–11
(Figs. 3a–g). These sections are not truly synoptic since
stations were occupied at various times from June until
mid-October.
39
In these sections, Ilulissat Icefjord and Disko Bay
(down to about 500 m) were filled with UpModIrmW.
As Andersen (1981) already found for years up to 1975,
the warmest West Greenland Current waters (here
ModIrmW) do not enter Disko Bay in significant
amounts, although we found that ModIrmW generally
flows along the Egedesminde Dyb up to the Egedesminde Dyb Sill (visible in 2007 and 2010). In years
where ModIrmW was also found east of the Egedesminde Dyb Sill (2006, 2008, 2009, and 2011), the
upper vertical limit of this water type was considerably
deeper than the Egedesminde Dyb Sill. Being denser
than UpModIrmW, ModIrmW ought to eventually fill
up Disko Bay east of the Egedesminde Dyb Sill and
eventually lap against the sill at the fjord mouth, possibly
entering the fjord itself. The fact that this did not occur
suggests that the flow of ModIrmW over the Egedesminde Dyb Sill was severely restricted. Any such
flow was either intermittent or else ModIrmW was significantly mixed with cooler and lighter overlying water
as it entered Disko Bay. In either case, the Egedesminde
Dyb Sill appears to have prevented ModIrmW from
filling Disko Bay up to depths that would give this
warmer water potential access to Ilulissat Icefjord. The
other water masses of Baffin Bay did not occupy the
Greenland shelf west of Disko Bay in summer, although
the intermingling of contours of UpModIrmW and
BBTherW in Baffin Bay suggests that isopycnic mixing
between these waters occurred to some extent.
For 2004 and 2006, no data in Ilulissat Icefjord are
available, but we infer from Disko Bay profiles that
Ilulissat Icefjord basin was filled with CFjW (Table 1).
This is reflected in the mostly continuous stripe of CFjW
in the u sections from the shelf break to Ilulissat. In
2007, Ilulissat Icefjord waters were intermediate between CFjW and WFjW, and this is reflected in the
absence of WFjW or CFjW in central to eastern Disko
Bay and their patchy presence toward the shelf break.
In 2008, disparate CTD casts in Disko Bay generally
show the presence of WFjW. In 2009, 2010, and 2011,
water filling Ilulissat Icefjord basin is seen as a mostly
continuous layer across Disko Bay but in no years is the
layer of CFjW or WFjW definitely continuous all the way
to the shelf break. This is likely because of the separations
in time between the various CTD casts, with those in
Baffin Bay always from September to October, those from
the shelf and Disko Bay typically in mid-June to mid-July,
and those inside Ilulissat Icefjord in July or August.
DISCUSSION OF POLAR WATER
We have shown that Ilulissat Icefjord basin waters
are always a subset of UpModIrmW, which is always
less saline than AW. The low-salinity fraction of
40
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
FIG. 3. Sections of potential temperature from Baffin Bay to Ilulissat Icefjord interpolated
between XCTD/CTD stations (marked by triangles) along the paths in Fig. 1. Instead of interpolating between widely separated stations (in space or time), white space is shown (significant spaces being Dt $ 2 days and Dx $ 30 km, Dt $ 20 days, or Dx $ 100 km). A fixed
position of Jakobshavn Glacier (JG) terminus (a typical position from 2009 to 2011) is shown
each year. Dark gray shading shows IBCAO v3 bathymetry sampled along the section, except
east of the fjord mouth (marked by a red star) where cast bottoms are allowed to override the
IBCAO bathymetry. Qeqertarsuaq and Ilulissat are marked by a red circle and red star, respectively. EDS, southwest of Qeqertarsuaq, is visible at 54.58W in each panel. Other bathymetric impediments west of the Egedesminde Dyb Sill are only apparent since the interpolation
paths do not exactly follow the trough. Water masses as defined in Table 2 are enclosed by thin
colored lines according to the color scheme in Fig. 2 (except BBArcW, which is omitted for the
sake of clarity and AW, none of which is present).
VOLUME 45
JANUARY 2015
GLADISH ET AL.
UpModIrmW can reach Disko Bay by two possible
pathways: via the West Greenland Current or via the
Baffin Current. Both sources are of Arctic origin, but the
low-salinity West Greenland Current waters have traveled
a much longer path around Greenland and are significantly
warmed. Because of its multiple sources, widely varying
properties, and eventual role in forming fjord water, we
delve next into an analysis of polar water.
(i) Polar Water north of Denmark Strait
Between Fram Strait and Denmark Strait, waters on
the northeast Greenland continental shelf are above and
to the west of the su 5 27.9 isopycnal, which intersects
the seafloor at about the shelf break [see CTD sections I,
II, and III of Rudels et al. (2002) and CTD section 5 of
Sutherland and Pickart (2008)]. Rudels et al. (2002)
classify waters lighter than su 5 27.7 as Polar Surface
Water (PSW) if u , 08C or warm Polar Surface Water
(PSWw) if u . 08C. In this region, PSWw is formed
mainly by sea ice melting on top of warm Atlantic surface water and is found seaward of the shelf break. The
shelf itself is completely occupied by PSW.
We point out that despite the fact that polar waters
make up the low-density upper layer in many Greenland
glacial fjords (Straneo et al. 2012), PSW on the east
Greenland shelf can be very dense compared to the
densities of the subpolar gyre and Baffin Bay with which
we are primarily concerned. After all, in the Irminger
basin east of Cape Farewell, no water with su 5 27.9 is
found at any depth, and the su 5 27.7 isopycnal intersects the east Greenland shelf slope at about 750-m
depth (Våge et al. 2011). In Baffin Bay, only BBDeepW
is as dense as su 5 27.7.
North of Denmark Strait, the su 5 27.9 isopycnal
slopes upward east of the shelf break, defining a front
between the PSW and the even denser near-surface
waters of the Greenland and Iceland Seas. The density
front this forms is associated with the strong southward
East Greenland Current (Rudels et al. 2002).
(ii) Polar Water south of Denmark Strait
South of Denmark Strait the surface waters of the
Irminger Sea are much less dense than those north of
Iceland, and the isopycnals over the Greenland shelf
break begin to curve downward. As the densest shelf
waters drain down the continental slope, they form the
fast equatorward East Greenland Spill Jet and vigorous
horizontal exchange between shelf and Irminger Sea
waters occurs (Pickart et al. 2005). Such mixing explains
how PSW with su $ 27.4 is completely eliminated from
the East Greenland Current as it flows from the north to
the south of Denmark Strait (Sutherland and Pickart 2008;
41
Rudels et al. 2002). As they are mixed, these dense PSW
parcels appear to migrate about halfway toward pure
AW along (diapycnal) mixing lines in u–S space. The
temperature minimum over the east Greenland shelf/
slope therefore becomes progressively warmer and less
dense, while the eroding density front retreats toward
the coast (see sections 5, 4, and 2 of Sutherland and
Pickart 2008). We suggest that the unmodified PSW
south of Denmark Strait, much less dense and confined
by a front near the coast, constitutes the headwaters of
the East Greenland Coastal Current. This is complementary to the idea that this current is made up of runoff
from melting glaciers (Bacon et al. 2002).
Sutherland and Pickart (2008) showed that, in any
case, the PSW that remained south of Denmark Strait
was gradually modified until no water cooler than 2.08C
with su $ 27.0 remained on the shelf at Cape Farewell in
July 2004. They suggest this modification was because of
surface heat fluxes and melting sea ice. Their Fig. 2,
however, shows that vertical temperature gradients
near the surface were flat south of Denmark Strait in
July/August 2004, so heating of PSW from above seems
unlikely. An alternative is that the progressive warming
of the entire East Greenland/Irminger Current mixing
line (for su $ 27.0) was because of compounding diapycnal mixing of East Greenland Current waters with
the effectively infinite reservoir of Irminger Current
water.
As waters of the East Greenland/Irminger Current
round Cape Farewell, they become the West Greenland
Current. Myers et al. (2009) showed that West Greenland
Current waters do not exhibit either a clear warming or
cooling tendency as they progress north. The temporal
variability at each cross-shelf summer CTD section obscures any systematic spatial trend, except that the
northern section (Maniitsoq, just south of Davis Strait)
always lacks the very warmest and densest waters seen in
the southern sections.
To summarize, the East/West Greenland Current
pathway delivers polar water (or polar-influenced water) that ought to be called ‘‘cool’’ rather than ‘‘cold’’
since it is at least 38C warmer than PSW when it begins
its journey south in the East Greenland Current. It is
not clear if colder East Greenland Coastal Current
waters are ever carried unmodified all the way to Davis
Strait.
The second source of polar water is the Baffin Current, which carries cold (u # 21.58C) and fresh (SA #
33.65 g kg21) water southward in a broad current covering west and central Baffin Bay (Cuny et al. 2005). The
thermocline waters directly below this (i.e., BBTherW,
in our classification), which also tend to flow southward,
should also be considered polar-influenced water.
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VOLUME 45
FIG. 4. Time series of water properties from mooring W1 at 151 m, averaged over 2-day bins.
(a) The main curve shows potential temperature u and is gray by default. However, when
UpModIrmW is present, the curve is pink, and when BBTherW, BBIntW, CFjW, WFjW, or
ModIrmW are present colored dots are shown (colors as in Fig. 2). The dashed black line is the
mean annual cycle (2004–11). (b),(c) As in (a), but for Absolute Salinity SA and potential
density su.
4. Sources of Disko Bay/Ilulissat Icefjord
variability
a. Evidence from mooring WG1-151
To introduce the questions we are concerned with in
this section, we show the time series from mooring
WG1-151 (Fig. 4). This mooring monitored waters over
the west Greenland shelf break (151-m depth) just north
of Davis Strait and just south of the entrance of Egedesminde Dyb from 2004 to 2011 (see Figs. 1 and 2a).
Mooring WG1-151 was usually immersed in UpModIrmW
and detected a 38–48C annual variation in temperature, 0.5–0.8 g kg21 annual variation in salinity, and
0.3–0.5 kg m23 annual variation in density. Appearances
of WFjW and CFjW were fleeting since the temperature
and density swept through u–SA space quickly each year.
The presence of WFjW in the first few months of a year
did not necessarily precede a summer in which WFjW
was detected in Disko Bay (i.e., 2005–07). However,
CFjW was present during spring in precisely the four
coolest years in Disko Bay: 2005–07 and 2010. During
the two coldest years, 2006 and 2010 (Table 1), this
mooring was flooded by BBTherW in the spring for brief
periods (green markers, Fig. 4). As a result, u dropped by
2.58C in the last two weeks of March 2006, and u dropped
by 38C in four weeks beginning in mid-February 2010.
JANUARY 2015
GLADISH ET AL.
43
FIG. 5. Regions used to group CTD and mooring stations. The S deep and SW deep are
bounded by the 1500-m isobaths; S shelf/slope and SW shelf/slope are bounded by the 1500-m
isobath and a line that skirts past any fjords along the coast. The Davis Strait region covers
Davis Strait up to just north of the mooring line. Baffin Bay and the WG outer shelf/slope west
of Disko Bay are separated by the 500-m isobath. Disko Bay includes stations east of the
Egedesminde Dyb Sill but outside Ilulissat Icefjord.
Although BBArcW (not necessarily from the Baffin
Current) did appear on the west Greenland shelf each
winter at moorings east of WG1-151, slightly denser
BBTherW only appeared at shelf moorings in 2006 and
2010. Also, the four moorings at 105-m depth above and
west of WG1-151 suggest that the BBTherW in 2010
(and possibly 2006, but data are lacking) originated from
the west (supplemental information). This is evidence
that the cool fjord temperatures in 2010 and possibly
2006 were because of an incursion of BBTherW from the
Baffin Current onto the west Greenland shelf break,
which would likely have mixed with slightly warmer
UpModIrmW to produce the CFjW that filled Disko
Bay/Ilulissat Icefjord later in the summer.
Mooring WG1-151 introduces several new questions,
however, which we address below using a larger set of
data. First, WG1-151 shows that UpModIrmW at the
west Greenland shelf break in Davis Strait runs over
a much wider range of temperatures each year than is
observed in Disko Bay/Ilulissat Icefjord (Gladish et al.
2015). It is still unclear why the warmest UpModIrmW
(over 58C) in midwinter did not enter Ilulissat Icefjord.
Second, from WG1-151 alone it is unclear why WFjW
was sometimes observed in the West Greenland Current
early in a given year without it appearing in Disko Bay/
Ilulissat Icefjord later in the summer (2005–07). Finally,
the fundamental reason(s) for the cold anomalies (especially 2006 and 2010) is yet to be explained.
b. Interannual variability along west Greenland,
1990–2011
1) EVIDENCE FROM CTD PROFILES
We next categorized CTD profiles from Cape Farewell
to Baffin Bay by region, year (1990–2011), and season.
The seasons were extended summer [May–August
(MJJA)] and autumn [September–November (SON)].
The regions are shown in Fig. 5. We occasionally refer to
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VOLUME 45
FIG. 6. Potential temperature u vs potential density su plots for 1990, 1991, and 1994 CTD profiles falling within
regions defined by Fig. 5. Rather than plotting individual CTD profiles, a single color band is plotted for each region.
The band is bounded by the 25% and 75% percentile potential temperatures u (ranging over all profiles in that region).
Dashed lines are used to show bands that are otherwise obscured. Water masses defined in Table 2 are shown (light gray
lines) for context. Left column is for extended summer months (MJJA) and right column is for autumn (SON).
the south (S) shelf/slope and SW shelf/slope regions together as the West Greenland Current (WGC in figures).
We also refer to S deep and S shelf/slope waters in the
su 5 27.5 to 27.7 range as Irminger Current waters; these
are actually the warmest Irminger Current waters near
Cape Farewell (Våge et al. 2011).
In Figs. 6 to 10, we present these data in u–su space
(rather than u–SA space) since Ilulissat Icefjord basin
waters occupy a known, narrow range of potential
densities. Straight lines in u–SA space become slightly
curved upward in u–su space, so mixing lines are distorted, particularly for u . 28C.
(i) 1990–94
In summer 1990 (Fig. 6a), the temperature maximum
of Irminger Current waters over the southern regions
was 48C, slightly cooler than AW. For waters denser
than su 5 27.4, a relatively tight u–su relationship (;18C
spread at each su) held for the SW shelf/slope, Davis
Strait, west Greenland outer shelf/slope, and Disko Bay,
suggesting that over the time scale of extended summer
there was a continuous advective pathway all along the
coast at these densities. For su , 27.4, there was
a greater spread of temperatures (.28C) in these regions
associated with the east–west gradient across Davis
Strait and over the west Greenland outer shelf/slope, but
Disko Bay waters agreed well with SW Greenland shelf/
slope waters at all densities.
Most importantly, Disko Bay was filled with CFjW in
the 27.20 # su # 27.31 range. These waters were approximately midway along a mixing line between the
almost 48C Irminger Current waters at Cape Farewell
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GLADISH ET AL.
45
FIG. 7. As in Fig. 6, but for 1996, 1997, and 1998.
and 08C waters at the temperature minimum near 100-m
depth throughout the SW shelf/slope. The 08C waters
were a remnant of the PSW found down to the su 5
27.7 isopycnal in the East Greenland Current north of
Denmark Strait (Rudels et al. 2002).
In autumn of 1990 (Fig. 6b), waters on the SW shelf/
slope became ;18C warmer at su 5 27.6 and ;38C
warmer for su # 27.4. Most Davis Strait and west
Greenland outer shelf/slope profiles remained at or
below their summer 1990 temperatures and overlapped
with BBTherW and BBIntW, suggesting that waters
originating in western Baffin Bay filled the full width of
Baffin Bay north of Davis Strait. No Disko Bay profiles
were retrieved in autumn of 1990.
In summer 1991 (Fig. 6c) SW shelf/slope waters were
slightly warmer than in 1990, occupying a u–su space
between CFjW and WFjW. DS waters, however,
passed through CFjW as in 1990 and the single DB
profile, though shallow, appears to agree with Davis
Strait properties better than SW shelf/slope water
properties. In autumn of 1991 (Fig. 6d), West Greenland
Current and Davis Strait UpModIrmW was again greatly
warmed, relative to the preceding summer, for su # 27.5.
Profiles in Disko Bay and on the west Greenland outer
shelf/slope, however, still contained CFjW.
In summer 1994 (Fig. 6e), Disko Bay UpModIrmW
contained CFjW, in agreement with Davis Strait but on
the cool margin of West Greenland Current waters
south of the strait. The usual autumn warming occurred
along the S and SW shelf/slope, but Davis Strait and
Disko Bay were undersampled (Fig. 6f).
(ii) 1996–98
In summer 1996 (Fig. 7a), Irminger Current waters
near the shelf break off Cape Farewell were distinctly warmer than in 1990 and 1994. Along the SW
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VOLUME 45
FIG. 8. As in Fig. 6, but for 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2004.
shelf/slope, these 58C waters connected along a mixing
line with 18–28C polar waters, with the mixing line
passing though WFjW. However, Disko Bay and the
west Greenland outer shelf/slope were still filled with
CFjW in this density range and in general fell along
a colder mixing line. West Greenland Current temperatures in autumn of 1996 (Fig. 7b) were greater
than in 1990–94, as well, although Disko Bay waters
with su $ 27.1 did not vary in temperature from summer to autumn, remaining near CFjW.
In summers of 1997 and 1998, warmer temperatures
(compared to 1990) at each end again caused the S and SW
shelf/slope mixing line to rise, so that UpModIrmW there
passed through WFjW rather than CFjW (Figs. 7c,e).
Disko Bay temperatures in summer 1997, however, rose
only partway to WFjW levels, remaining between CFjW
JANUARY 2015
GLADISH ET AL.
47
FIG. 9. As in Fig. 6, but for 2005, 2006, and 2007.
and WFjW for most profiles. In summer 1998, the west
Greenland outer shelf/slope and Disko Bay were fully
consistent with warm West Greenland Current waters
to the south. Davis Strait was cooler than the west
Greenland outer shelf/slope and Disko Bay waters in
summers of 1997 and 1998 in part, possibly, because
stations in Davis Strait were occupied in June and early
July while most stations in Disko Bay and the west
Greenland outer shelf/slope were occupied in mid- to
late-August. In autumn 1998, Disko Bay retained
WFjW, while the West Greenland Current and Davis
Strait waters to the south warmed more than ever
(Fig. 7f).
(iii) 2000–04
Irminger Current waters off Cape Farewell in 2000
were as warm as in 1997/98 (an objective comparison is
impossible due to variations in sampling locations and
dates), but the warm core of the West Greenland Current
along the SW shelf/slope was cooler. Also, the low-salinity
shelf water in SW Greenland was on the margin of
PSW, as in 1990 (Fig. 8a). The UpModIrmW mixing line
therefore passed between WFjW and CFjW that summer in the West Greenland Current and Disko Bay.
Data coverage was poor in 2001 (not shown), but
Disko Bay waters were again intermediate between
WFjW and CFjW and in good agreement with available
West Greenland Current profiles.
Summer of 2002 (Fig. 8c) was very similar to summer
of 1998, with WFjW detected at the fjord mouth and
2.398C (in situ) waters inside the fjord basin later that
winter (Gladish et al. 2015).
Summer of 2003 (Fig. 8e) provided an important
contrast to summer of 2002. In both summer and autumn, Irminger Current waters on the S shelf/slope were
warmer than ever and the West Greenland Current in
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VOLUME 45
FIG. 10. As in Fig. 6, but for 2008 to 2011.
the 27.20 # su # 27.31 range was at least as warm as
WFjW, yet Disko Bay waters were cooler than in summer of 2002. The lack of WFjW in Ilulissat Icefjord later
that winter (Gladish et al. 2015) shows that undiluted
West Greenland Current waters did not flush Disko
Bay/Ilulissat Icefjord in the second half of 2003.
Summer of 2004 (Fig. 8g) was substantially similar to
summer of 2003, with warm West Greenland Current
waters south of Davis Strait but with Disko Bay waters
the coolest since 1994 (Table 1). West Greenland Current waters underwent the usual autumn warming in
2004 (above 48C for all su $ 26.8; Fig. 8h). Better sampling across Davis Strait that season showed there was
a large thermal gradient on isopycnals from south to
north, with waters in the south similar to West Greenland Current waters and those to the north remaining
JANUARY 2015
GLADISH ET AL.
close to the cool conditions seen earlier in the summer
north of Davis Strait.
(iv) 2005–07
In summer 2005 (Fig. 9a), West Greenland Current data
were sparse, but the overall pattern appears substantially
similar to 1997 and 2003 with a warm West Greenland
Current and intermediate Disko Bay temperatures.
In 2006, SW shelf/slope waters from mid-May just
grazed CFjW in u–su space, while Disko Bay waters
from mid-July passed entirely through the CFjW definition (Fig. 9c). It appears that the cool waters of Disko
Bay and Ilulissat Icefjord that year may have been carried there by a cool West Greenland Current, as in 1990
and 1994. It also suggests the possibility, however, that
the cooler Disko Bay waters in 2003 and 2004 were actually carried there by a seasonally varying West
Greenland Current that was warmer in late June when it
was sampled than in the spring when it carried waters that
would arrive in Disko Bay later in the summer. Assuming
a speed of 0.35 m s21 south of Davis Strait (Cuny et al.
2002) and 0.15 m s21 from the strait into Disko Bay, the
travel time for West Greenland Current waters from
Cape Farewell to Ilulissat Icefjord is about 90 days.
In summer of 2007 (Fig. 9e), profiles from SW shelf/
slope to Disko Bay essentially overlapped in u–su space,
and the intermediate temperatures in Disko Bay can be
attributed to waters of intermediate temperature in the
West Greenland Current.
(v) 2008–11
In summer of 2008 (Fig. 10a), Disko Bay had a layer of
WFjW across it, consistent with a warm West Greenland
Current. While the AW end member of the SW shelf/
slope mixing line was slightly cooler than in 2007, the
low-salinity polar water end member was unusually
warm, tilting the mixing line upward. In this instance, the
warmth of Disko Bay seems related to anomalous heating of the West Greenland Current polar waters. In autumn, low-salinity West Greenland Current waters at
su 5 27.0 reached almost 68C, which occurred in only two
other years (2003 and 2011). Davis Strait waters were
unusually cool in autumn of 2008 (Fig. 10b) compared to
previous years (but this could be a sampling bias).
In June 2009 (Fig. 10c), the West Greenland Current
was carrying CFjW northward while Disko Bay was in
a warm state, possibly retained from the previous year.
The West Greenland Current up to Davis Strait was
distinctly warm in summer 2010 (Fig. 10e), yet Disko
Bay and the west Greenland outer shelf/slope were even
colder than in 2004. Either the West Greenland Current was anomalously cool in early 2010 or else Disko
Bay waters contained a larger than usual fraction of
49
BBTherW. We favor the second explanation for multiple reasons (discussed further below), including the fact
that BBTherW was actually present at su 5 27.2 kg m23
near the Egedesminde Dyb trough (red band, Fig. 10e).
In autumn of 2010 (Fig. 10f), Disko Bay retained CFjW,
implying that the warm West Greenland Current waters
of the summer had not entered Disko Bay.
In summer of 2011 (Fig. 10g), warmer than ever waters filled Disko Bay and the west Greenland outer shelf/
slope. The West Greenland Current was not sampled
enough to relate it to these particularly warm waters.
2) SUMMARY OF WEST GREENLAND VARIABILITY,
1990–2011
UpModIrmW properties in Disko Bay in the summers
of 1990, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2006–08 agreed with waters along the SW shelf/slope, and therefore interannual
variations in those years were likely carried to Disko
Bay in the West Greenland Current. Temperature variations in both the Irminger-derived temperature maximum and the East Greenland Current–derived
temperature minimum were jointly responsible for the
;18C interannual variations carried into Disko Bay and
Ilulissat Icefjord. In 1991, 1994, 1997, and 2005, the
continuity of water properties was ambiguous; we make
no further comments about these years. Summers when
there was a clear disagreement between Disko Bay
UpModIrmW and waters over the SW shelf/slope were
1996, 2003, 2004, 2009, and 2010.
In the summers with clear disagreement, UpModIrmW
in the West Greenland Current was cooler than in Disko
Bay only in 2009. Otherwise UpModIrmW in Disko
Bay was cooler. In 1996 and 2010, autumn waters in
Disko Bay were still cool, implying that the warm West
Greenland Current waters never reached Disko Bay
(no autumn observations in 2003 and 2004). However,
in 1996, 2003, 2004, and 2010, cool UpModIrmW in
Disko Bay was in agreement with UpModIrmW water
on the west Greenland outer shelf/slope, suggesting that
exchange had occurred across the shelf. Greenland shelf
waters north of Davis Strait were cool those years because either 1) the West Greenland Current had delivered cool waters earlier in the spring across Davis
Strait or 2) BBTherW waters normally confined to the
west and central part of Baffin Bay had mixed (along
isopycnals) with UpModIrmW from the West Greenland Current, creating a cool product that spread over
the west Greenland shelf and into Disko Bay. The
available evidence is insufficient to decide in general in
favor of hypothesis 1 or 2. The fact that there was a large
annual cycle in UpModIrmW temperatures in Davis
Strait over the west Greenland slope (Fig. 4a), which
reached its minimum typically before midsummer CTD
50
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
profiles were collected, supports hypothesis 1 (possibly
explaining the cool 2006, for instance). The presence of
BBTherW at mooring WG1-151 in early 2010 and the
exceptionally warm West Greenland Current in summer
of 2010 favors hypothesis 2 in that case.
3) SMALL INTERANNUAL CHANGES, LARGE
SEASONAL CYCLE
Relative to the large seasonal cycle in UpModIrmW
temperatures in the West Greenland Current, the interannual temperature changes we observed in Ilulissat
Icefjord were quite small, which makes explaining those
temperature changes inherently delicate. Every autumn
UpModIrmW appeared in Davis Strait that, if it had
entered Disko Bay, would have been much warmer
than any UpModIrmW observed in the bay since 1980
(Gladish et al. 2015) and probably in at least the past
100 yr (Lloyd et al. 2011). It is known that the West
Greenland Current, which travels about 0.35 m s21
above the SW shelf/slope, splits at Davis Strait with
a large majority of its waters turning to the west to
eventually join the Labrador Current (Cuny et al. 2002).
However, it is not true that the autumn warm signal
failed to cross Davis Strait simply because the already
weak northward flow ceased in autumn. Mean northward currents of 0.1–0.2 m s21 over the west Greenland
shelf/slope at Davis Strait in autumn are normal (Tang
et al. 2004; Cuny et al. 2005; Curry and Lee 2011; Curry
et al. 2014).
Stations on the west Greenland outer shelf/slope were
never occupied late enough in the year, however, to
determine whether the late-autumn warm signal in
Davis Strait really propagated into outer Egedesminde
Dyb. The closest we come to being able to test this is
from October profiles in 2006, 2007, and 2009 on the
west Greenland outer shelf. UpModIrmW in these
profiles was at least 18C cooler than in Davis Strait.
However, besides being possibly too early in the autumn
to see the autumn/winter warm pulse, these profiles
were all from a section north of the entrance to Egedesminde Dyb and could have missed a warm inflow
banked against the southern wall of the trough. Supposing that some of the 58–68C UpModIrmW does cross
Davis Strait in autumn/winter, why does it not enter
Disko Bay/Ilulissat Icefjord? We address this question
using the Davis Strait mooring data below.
c. Seasonal cycle from moorings
1) GEOSTROPHIC VELOCITIES THROUGH DAVIS
STRAIT
Figure 11 shows seasonally averaged geostrophic velocities across Davis Strait, derived using the thermal
VOLUME 45
wind relation with densities interpolated across the
temperature–salinity (T–S) moorings and referenced to
acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) velocities
averaged over the upper 100 m. The largely barotropic
West Greenland Current was generally strongest in
autumn, which is consistent with Tang et al. (2004) and
Cuny et al. (2005). The southward Baffin Current was
usually surface intensified and usually covered most of
Davis Strait, leading to high horizontal shear just west of
the Greenland slope.
Northward transports over the Greenland slope and
shelf (where data are available) appeared typical in the
first half of 2006, the first year with abundant CFjW
covered by this dataset. This supports the hypothesis
that cool Ilulissat Icefjord waters originated in the West
Greenland Current that summer.
The weak West Greenland Current transport above
su 5 27.3 in the first half of 2007 possibly explains the
sigmoidal shape of Disko Bay profiles in 2007 (Fig. 9e),
with waters above the su 5 27.2 isopycnal appearing to
lie along a cooler mixing line than waters below the su 5
27.3 isopycnal.
The West Greenland Current was particularly weak
during summer of 2010, with mean velocities being
southward across Davis Strait from Baffin Island to the
west Greenland shelf in July. The fact that UpModIrmW
was not flowing toward the shelf west of Disko Bay in
July 2010 is consistent with the hypothesis that Ilulissat
Icefjord contained an unusually large fraction of cold
BBThermW then. However, Disko Bay already contained CFjW in May and June of 2010 before the West
Greenland Current stagnated.
Figure 11 also shows that the crucial su 5 27.3 contour
was typically at or slightly above the depth of the Egedesminde Dyb Sill in autumn. We hypothesize that the
inflow of waters in the su 5 27.2 to 27.3 range was
therefore topographically controlled by the Egedesminde Dyb Sill and consequently impeded such that
relatively little warm autumn water entered Disko Bay
[as in schematic Fig. 6 of Whitehead (1998)]. This isopycnal gate was most open in winter and spring of each
year, but with an illuminating exception. In 2009, there
was no data from slope mooring C5-500 until the autumn
redeployment, but the easternmost deep mooring C4500 was anomalously low-density in winter (2008/09),
showing that the isopycnal gate was closed (or less open
than usual) that winter. In spring of 2009, the flow of the
West Greenland Current was weak, and the isopycnal
gate appears to have remained less open than usual
(compared to spring of 2005–07 or 2010/11), although
the missing data from C5-500 makes this uncertain. The
weak current and apparent blockage of these crucial
isopycnals in early 2009 could explain the failure of cool
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GLADISH ET AL.
51
FIG. 11. Geostrophic velocities transverse to the Davis Strait mooring line, using potential densities interpolated between T–S moorings
(black circles) and referenced to ADCP mooring (black crosses) velocities in the upper 100 m. Pale blue areas are outside of the interpolation area of the moorings while dark gray areas are seabed (IBCAO V3). The pale blue line through the Greenland shelf is at 300 m,
the depth of the Egedesminde Dyb Sill. Gray lines are the 26.7 and 27.0 kg m23 isopycnals, and the black line is the 27.3 kg m23 isopycnal.
Blue and red boxes distinguish cool and warm summers, as in Table 1.
West Greenland Current waters (Fig. 10c) to enter
Disko Bay that year, leaving the warmer 2008 waters in
place.
Unusually high densities over the west Greenland slope
lifted the su 5 27.3 isopycnal well above the depth of the
Egedesminde Dyb Sill from winter 2009/10 to spring 2010,
implying that the flow of water over Egedesminde Dyb
Sill may have been larger than normal in early 2010.
In winter 2010/11, isopycnals on the shelf were depressed and the isopycnal gate was closed. Spring of
2011 was closer to typical, however, and this was followed by the strongest observed West Greenland
Current of any summer bringing warm water toward the
gate. A surge of warm West Greenland Current waters
in mid-2011 must be responsible for the record warm
waters on the west Greenland outer shelf/slope
(Fig. 10g) and in Disko Bay (Table 1) in summer of 2011.
2) SPATIAL PATTERNS OF SEASONAL VARIABILITY
To better understand the spatial pattern of variability
across Davis Strait, we analyzed the covariability of the
T–S moorings with good temporal coverage. The nine
moorings used were W1-150, W2-75, C5-502, C5-105, C4502, C4-105, C2-502, C2-105, and C1-105 (Figs. 1, 2a).
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FIG. 12. EOF analysis of potential temperatures from nine Davis Strait moorings. After removing the
mean from each mooring time series, the vector time series u(t) of all mooring temperatures was decomposed as
u(t) 5 Q1 y 1 (t) 1 Q2 y2 (t) 1 . . . , where the dimensionless coefficient time series yk(t) were mutually orthogonal with
unit variance, and the modes (i.e. vectors) Qk were mutually orthogonal. Modes Q1 and Q2 together account for 76%
percent of the moorings’ covariance (Q1 contributes 47%). (a) Coefficient time series y1(t) and y2(t) are shown. (b),
(c) Monthly averaged anomalies of y1(t) and y2(t), relative to the long-term monthly averages. (d) Dots mark the
locations of nine moorings used in the EOF analysis, plotted over the bathymetry of Davis Strait. The dot’s color and
size are proportional to the amplitude from Q1 for each mooring (also written next to each mooring). The inset time
series is the long-term monthly averaged y1(t). (e) As in (d), but for Q2 and y2(t).
Figure 12 shows the two leading patterns of covariability of potential temperature for these moorings.
Mode Q1 captured much of the annual warming over the
Greenland shelf and slope, reaching a maximum in
November (Fig. 12d, inset). Mode Q2 captures the fact
that the shallow shelf mooring W2-75 generally reached
its maximum temperature in September (not shown),
slightly earlier than Q1, while shelf slope/break moorings generally reached their maximum temperature in
December (not shown), slightly later than Q1. Overall,
waters over the west Greenland shelf/slope down to
150-m depth were warmest from September to February,
reaching about 1.58–28C above their annual mean, and
coolest from March to August, reaching 1.58–28C below
their annual mean. Waters at 500 m on the slope
(roughly, the West Greenland Current temperature
maximum) projected strongly on the second mode and
had about a 0.88C minimum-to-maximum annual variation (the smallness of which is consistent with the tilting
rather than lifting of the West Greenland Current mixing line in autumn). On the west side of Baffin Bay,
temperature variations were much smaller.
Waters over the Greenland slope and shelf may have
been warmest in autumn and winter, but Fig. 13 shows
that this is when they were the least dense, as well. Mode
Su1 captured the tilting of isopycnals up toward the
Greenland shelf in spring (maximum in April; Fig.13d,
inset), with the Greenland shelf undergoing densification and the Baffin Current becoming somewhat less
dense, and the flatting of isopycnals in autumn (flattest
in September). Mode Su2 captured a general densification of both continental shelves peaking in June
(Fig. 13e, inset) and reaching a minimum in midwinter.
Adding the two modes together (not shown) shows that
the waters over the Baffin slope were densest in late
summer when they were the most saline and least dense
in midwinter when they were the least saline, while
waters over the Greenland shelf were densest in spring
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GLADISH ET AL.
53
FIG. 13. As in Fig. 12, but for potential density su. Modes Su1 and Su2, which contribute about equally, account for
89% of the moorings’ covariance.
when saltiest and least dense in autumn when least saline (salinity modes shown in Fig. 14).
Temperature anomalies were most conspicuous in
early 2010 and early 2011. In early 2010, waters over the
Greenland shelf and slope were 0.58 to 28C cooler than
usual, and in early 2011 they were warmer than usual by
about the same amount (Figs. 12b,c). These anomalies
showed up also in density, with the cool Greenland shelf
waters of 2010 being denser and those of 2011 being less
dense (Figs. 13b,c).
An important difference between the two cool summers 2006 and 2010 was that Baffin Current waters had
a large positive salinity anomaly in 2006 but a large
negative anomaly in 2010 (Fig. 14b). Baffin Current
densities were consequently higher than usual in 2006
(mode Su2; Fig. 13c) and low in early 2010 (both modes;
Figs. 13b,c). Consequently, the isopycnal tilt across Baffin
Bay was much greater in early 2010 than in early 2006.
3) WHY DO WARM AUTUMN/WINTER WEST
GREENLAND CURRENT WATERS NOT ENTER
DISKO BAY?
From the moorings’ seasonal cycles, we infer that
during autumn and winter the low-density waters
flooding the west Greenland continental shelf push
down critical isopycnals, making exchange over the topographic barriers more difficult, precisely when the
waters of the outer shelf are warmest. According to
CTD profiles near the west Greenland shelf break, the
mean vertical density gradient between 100- to 300-m
depth is typically 2.2 3 1023 6 4 3 1024 kg m24. The
annual oscillation in density at the shelfbreak mooring
WG1-151 of about 0.3 g kg21 (Fig. 4) therefore corresponds, under the assumption that the mean background stratification does not change much over the
year, to vertical isopycnal displacements of about Dz 5
Dr/(›r/›z) 5 140 m. The su 5 27.4 isopycnal, which
grazes the Egedesminde Dyb Sill in June (Fig. 3d), is
therefore interrupted by the sill during autumn/winter,
and the su 5 27.3 isopycnal, which was at 150-m depth
just west of the sill in June 2007, would be at about the
sill depth in autumn/winter.
The isopycnals on the west Greenland shelf in Davis
Strait rose to their maximum height in spring each year
(Fig. 13d), and therefore it is in the spring when inflow
into Disko Bay was likely the greatest. If true, waters
that fill Disko Bay and Ilulissat Icefjord below sill depths
in spring are potentially locked-in until the following
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FIG. 14. As in Fig. 12, but for Absolute Salinity SA.
Modes S1, S2, and S3 contribute 47%, 26%, and 11% of
the moorings’ covariance.
spring when exchange with the outer shelf resumes. In
mid-September of 2010 (when isopycnals were still
much shallower than they would become later in the
winter), the Egedesminde Dyb Sill was clearly causing
a severe depression of isotherms (and isopycnal) on the
Disko Bay side relative to the outer trough side (Fig. 3f),
indicating that the sill was already exercising topographic control on those isopycnals. The interaction
between isopycnals and the Egedesminde Dyb Sill is
captured in the schematic Fig. 15.
5. 2010 cool anomaly
West Greenland Current waters in summer 2010 were
actually unusually warm [first reported in Ribergaard
(2011)], but the West Greenland Current transport in
Davis Strait was weak in summer of 2010. We know that
UpModIrmW, the waters that habitually enter Ilulissat
Icefjord, shares isopycnals with BBTherW and that
UpModIrmW and BBTherW intermingle in southern
Baffin Bay (Fig. 3). Also, BBTherW was detected at
moorings on the Greenland shelf in 2010, and isopycnals
across Baffin Bay were tilted upward toward Greenland
in early 2010. We therefore argued that the immediate
cause of the 2010 cool anomaly in Disko Bay was a
greater than usual penetration of BBTherW water
in early 2010. This hypothesis is consistent with Myers
and Ribergaard (2013), who found that the coolness of
near-surface waters in Disko Bay prior to the late 1990s
was due to greater penetration of Baffin Bay waters.
Andersen (1981) found that although pure Baffin
Current waters were excluded from Disko Bay, the
water entering Disko Bay prior to 1975 was a mixture
of West Greenland Current waters and Baffin Current
waters. Hansen et al. (2012) found that the shift from
pre-1997 to post-1997 temperatures was accompanied
by a shift in nutrient contents indicating a decreased
fraction of Arctic-origin (i.e., BBArcW/BBTherW)
water.
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55
FIG. 15. Schematic diagram of seasonal exchange over the west Greenland continental shelf
west of Ilulissat Icefjord. The warm phase of the WGC is masked by the EDS.
a. NAO index
Was the 2010 shift in the provenance of Disko Bay
waters caused by surface atmospheric variability? The
dominant pattern of sea level pressure anomalies in the
Atlantic sector north of 208N is called the North Atlantic
Oscillation (NAO). This pattern emphasizes a low
pressure center over Greenland and Iceland and high
pressure west of Portugal at subtropical latitudes. Positive NAO index values imply low surface air pressure
over Greenland and strong westerlies over the North
Atlantic (Hurrell 1995).
The annually averaged NAO index for 2010 reached
an all-time record low (supplemental information), and
it is tempting to somehow attribute the 2010 shift to this
isolated NAO anomaly. Indeed, Holland et al. (2008)
attributed subsurface warming along west Greenland in
the late 1990s to changes in the NAO. However, they
found that the warming of subsurface waters along west
Greenland occurred after the sharp drop in the NAO
index in 1996 following a period of sustained positive
phase in the early 1990s. Here, we observed a cooling of
Ilulissat Icefjord waters in summer 2010 after the sharp
drop in the NAO index in 2010. The resolution of this
apparent contradiction is simply that there is a delay in
the causal chain linking NAO index changes and subsurface temperatures on the west Greenland shelf.
A simple view of this causal chain as it was followed in
the late 1990s is that negative NAO anomalies, corresponding to a weakened meridional pressure gradient,
led to weakened westerlies over the North Atlantic,
which in turn led to reduced winter cooling of the upper
subpolar gyre. This relaxed the domed isopycnals of the
gyre and therefore weakened its cyclonic circulation
(Häkkinen and Rhines 2004). At the same time, the
eastern limit of the weakened subpolar gyre moved
westward such that, after a 1- or 2-yr delay (less delay in
the rapid Irminger Current), more subtropical gyre waters entered the subpolar gyre and its boundary currents
(Hátún et al. 2005; Bersch 2002). The decreased transport
of the subpolar gyre was apparently less important than
the warming of the gyre since about 1 yr after the NAO
shift of 1996, warmer waters mixed into the East/West
Greenland Current began to arrive in Disko Bay
(Holland et al. 2008). As shown in Table 1, it was in 1998
that the warming signal became fully expressed in Disko
Bay. It is therefore more reasonable to explain the record
Disko Bay/Ilulissat Icefjord temperatures of 2011 and
2012 by this advective pathway in connection with the
strong negative NAO anomaly of 2010.
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FIG. 16. ERA-Interim data for Baffin Bay region. Leading patterns of SLP, SAT, and SST anomalies and their
seasonally averaged temporal variability from 2004 to 2011 in Baffin Bay are shown. Each variable z was decomposed
as z 5 f1y 1(t) 1 f2y2(t) . . . , where the spatial patterns fk were mutually orthogonal and the time-varying coefficients
y k(t) were mutually orthogonal and had unit variance. Spatial patterns fk are mapped on the left and principal
component time series yk(t) was mapped on the right in Figs. 16 to 19. (a) The leading mode of SLP anomalies accounts for
97% of variability. (b) The temporal expansion coefficient, normalized to have unit variance. Red (blue) dots highlight
monthly anomalies greater (less) than one standard deviation. Red/blue stars show the same for two standard deviations.
Anticorrelation of this pattern with the monthly NAO index is strong (r 5 20.62). High pressure in winter 2009/10 is
consistent with the severe drop in NAO that began then. (c) The leading mode for SAT variability emphasizes heating over
the middle of Baffin Bay and account for 87% of variability. (d),(f) Expansion coefficients for SAT and SST. (e) The
leading mode for SST, emphasizing northern Baffin Bay, accounts for 74% of the total covariance.
b. Baffin Bay atmospheric variability from
ERA-Interim
Looking next at more local atmospheric anomalies,
we extracted 12-hourly sea level pressure (SLP), surface
air temperature (SAT), sea surface temperature (SST),
sea ice concentration (SIC), and wind stress fields over
Baffin Bay from the ERA-Interim reanalysis product
covering the period December 2003 to November
2011.
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GLADISH ET AL.
57
FIG. 17. Two leading patterns of SIC anomalies and their temporal variability from 2004 to 2011 in Baffin Bay.
(a) The leading mode of SIC accounts for 46% of variability and emphasizes east-central Baffin Bay where the ice edge
is found during the annual advance and retreat. (c) The second SIC mode, accounting for 18% of variability, emphasizes differences in SIC between central and southeast Baffin Bay. (b),(d) Temporal variability of first and second
SIC modes. Dots and stars are as in Fig. 16.
The mean annual cycle was first removed and the
remaining anomalies were then averaged over 3month intervals. A conventional EOF analysis was
then performed on the seasonally averaged anomalies. For SLP, SAT, and SST, the leading empirical
modes captured a large fraction of the covariability
(Fig. 16). Sea ice variability was not as well captured
by a single mode. The first two sea ice modes together
accounted for 64% of the variability (Fig. 17). Finally,
the leading modes of wind stress and the two leading
modes of the wind stress curl are shown in Figs. 18
and 19.
Sea level pressure over all of Baffin Bay was anomalously high in winter 2009/10 (Fig. 16b), in agreement
with the very low NAO index beginning then. Surface
air temperatures over Davis Strait and southeast Baffin
Bay in winter of 2009/10 were several degrees warmer
than usual, but the same is true of winter 2010/11
(Figs. 16c,d), so no direct connection to the cool 2010
ocean anomaly is apparent. A more obvious link is the
one between SAT, SST, and SIC. Summer sea surface
temperatures in eastern Baffin Bay were high in 2009
and 2010, winter surface air temperatures were high in
Davis Strait and southeast Baffin Bay in the following
winters (2009/10 and 2010/11), while sea ice concentrations in south and southeast Baffin Bay were low
those winters as well (Figs. 16, 17). We cannot justify
asserting any dynamical connections—we simply point
out that the conspicuous anomalies do not clearly distinguish 2010 from 2011.
Zonal wind stress anomalies tend to be coherent over
most of Baffin Bay, while meridional anomalies concentrate in Davis Strait (Figs. 18a,c). Zonal stresses
correlate with the NAO index (r 5 0.38), and 2010 exhibited anomalous westward stresses that distinguished it
from neighboring years. Meridional wind stress and firstmode wind stress curl anomalies are most intense over
Davis Strait and have very similar temporal variability
(Figs. 18d, 19b). For these variables, negative anomalies
throughout 2009 are conspicuous. These anomalies
would tend to induce upwelling along the Greenland
shelf in Davis Strait. Positive density and salinity
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VOLUME 45
FIG. 18. Leading patterns of zonal wind stress txz and meridional wind stress tyz. (a) The leading mode for txz
accounts for 51% of the variability and captures the broadly uniform stress from westerlies off the Canadian Arctic.
(c) The leading mode for tyz accounts for 71% of the variability and emphasizes meridional stress in Davis Strait.
(b),(d) Temporal expansion coefficients are as in Fig. 16. Temporal correlations of these modes with the NAO index
are r 5 0.38 (zonal stress) and r 5 0.09 (meridional stress).
anomalies were indeed observed in the shallow shelf
moorings in the second half of 2009 (not shown). This
perhaps preconditioned the region for the positive density
anomalies that dominated the Greenland shelf in early
2010 (Fig. 13b), but it is not apparent how Ekman upwelling in 2009 could directly cause the cool anomaly of
2010.
Of all the mechanical wind variables and thermodynamic variables, only the zonal stress (and associated
upwelling/downwelling) anomaly of 2010 over Baffin
Bay suggests any direct relation to the cool 2010 ocean
anomaly. These zonal stress anomalies are conceivably
related to the changes in potential vorticity that Myers
and Ribergaard (2013) found were linked to the late 1990s
change in circulation in southern Baffin Bay, but this is
a question for future research. Alternatively, the zonal
stress anomalies might simply reflect the hemispheric wind
patterns associated with the low NAO index in 2010,
bearing no direct connection to the ocean temperature
anomaly in 2010 in Disko Bay and Ilulissat Icefjord.
c. Salinity anomaly from the Arctic Ocean
Rather than being linked to North Atlantic or Baffin
Bay meteorology, a final possibility is that the cool 2010
ocean anomaly was linked to the Arctic Ocean via the
Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Seeking an explanation
for the changes in polar waters in Disko Bay and on the
Greenland shelf near Disko Bay, Myers and Ribergaard
(2013) suggested that changes in southeast Baffin Bay
might be linked to Arctic processes via the connection
between sea surface gradients across Baffin Bay, gradients across the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and flux
through the archipelago.
Curry et al. (2014) pointed out that the low salinity of
the Baffin Current from late 2009 to late 2010 was due to
a large influx of liquid freshwater through the Canadian
Arctic. This fresh signal is captured in their Fig. 4 (Arctic
Water salinity) and is visible in our Fig. 14b. The
freshwater was released from the Beaufort Gyre after
a shift in wind stress over the Arctic Ocean in 2009
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GLADISH ET AL.
59
FIG. 19. (a) The leading mode for wind stress curl accounts for 37% of the variability and is primarily associated
with gradients in meridional stress across Davis Strait. When the coefficient for this pattern is positive, Ekman
transport induces downwelling on the Greenland side of Davis Strait and upwelling on the Baffin Island side. (c) The
second-mode accounts for 24% of the variability and has temporal variability similar to the leading zonal stress
pattern, with upwelling and downwelling varying along the principal (north–south) axis of Baffin Bay. (b),(d)
Temporal expansion coefficient are as in Fig. 16.
(Timmermans et al. 2011). In early 2010, there was also
a positive salinity anomaly over the west Greenland
shelf in Davis Strait (Fig. 14c), possibly due to the upwelling induced by anomalous meridional wind stresses
in the later part of 2009. Together with the freshening of
the Baffin Current, this caused the isopycnals across
Baffin Bay to tilt upward toward west Greenland more
than usual in early 2010 (Fig. 13b).
In January and February 2010, the West Greenland
Current was nearly stagnant in eastern Davis Strait, and
the core of the Baffin Current had shifted east to the center
of Baffin Bay (Fig. 11), both in accordance with upwardsloping isopycnals across Baffin Bay. The eastward shift of
the Baffin Current would also shift the thermocline to the
east, bringing BBTherW into contact with mooring WG1151, for instance (Fig. 4). It was in May 2010 that eastern
Disko Bay probably cooled to temperatures last observed
in the 1980s (Gladish et al. 2015).
The fresh anomaly in the Baffin Current was also
present in 2011 (Fig. 14b), but isopycnals across Baffin
Bay were domed in 2011 rather than tilted, in part because of the extremely warm and fresh waters on the
west Greenland shelf (Fig. 12c). Those fresh shelf waters
possibly represented the delayed arrival of the 2009/10
Arctic freshwater pulse after having traveled all the way
around Greenland in the East/West Greenland Current.
Because of the domed isopycnals, the Baffin Current
was confined to the west and the West Greenland Current transport remained strongly northward in early
2011 [Fig. 11; December–February (DJF) 2010/11], so
cold Baffin Current waters did not gain access to the
west Greenland shelf.
6. Summary and conclusions
a. Climatological aspects
Our first major finding is that Ilulissat Icefjord basin
waters, which make up the greater part of the thermal
boundary condition for Jakobshavn Glacier, are in general a nearly equal mixture of Irminger Current waters
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JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
and low-salinity polar waters. Along the west Greenland
coast in summer, Upper Modified Irminger Waters
(UpModIrmW; Table 2) destined for Ilulissat Icefjord are
typically found within a density and temperature front
formed between modified Irminger Current water over
the west Greenland slope and polar waters over the west
Greenland shelf/slope. The warmest waters of the West
Greenland Current are prevented from entering Ilulissat
Icefjord by bathymetric impediments between the west
Greenland shelf break and Ilulissat Icefjord, namely, the
Egedesminde Dyb Sill and the Iceberg Bank at the fjord
mouth.
Our second major finding is that there are huge seasonal cycles in density and temperature of UpModIrmW
along west Greenland and yet there is, comparatively,
almost no seasonal cycle at the seafloor just west of
Ilulissat Icefjord (at 350-m depth, mean su 5 27.32) or
inside Ilulissat Icefjord basin (Gladish et al. 2015). The
available evidence suggests that the annual cycle of
vertical isopycnal migration over the outer shelf conspires
with the Egedesminde Dyb Sill to mask out the warm
phase of the UpModIrmW temperature cycle, leaving
Disko Bay/Ilulissat Icefjord relatively constant each year
beneath an upper layer that may experience large seasonal variations. Exchange over the Egedesminde Dyb
Sill probably occurs in spring (or earlier) each year.
The fact that Ilulissat Icefjord basin water generally
contains a large fraction of low-salinity polar waters and
the fact that there is a large annual cycle of temperatures
along the west Greenland shelf/slope necessitates a refinement of the schema implied by Holland et al. (2008),
in which a northward-propagating pulse of warm West
Greenland Current waters suddenly reached Disko Bay/
Ilulissat Icefjord in 1997. First, water of nearly 38C in the
Ilulissat Icefjord basin density class did reach Disko Bay
in 1997, but water warmer than 48C in that density class
reached at least to Davis Strait every year since 1990, in
autumn. Second, the averaging down to 600-m depths in
Fig. 4 of Holland et al. (2008) obscures the fact that the
warmest West Greenland Current waters never reached
Ilulissat Icefjord. Third, Ilulissat Icefjord water temperatures are influenced as much by temperature variability of
low-salinity polar waters (see also Myers and Ribergaard
2013) as by variability of the temperature maximum of the
Irminger Current waters entering the West Greenland
Current at Cape Farewell.
b. Interannual variability
The Irminger Current is the single source of warm and
saline waters in west Greenland. There are, however, two
potential sources of low-salinity polar waters: the Baffin
Current and the East/West Greenland Current, which tend
to be warmer than the Baffin Current at the same density
VOLUME 45
(Tang et al. 2004; Myers et al. 2009). East Greenland
Current polar waters north of Denmark Strait on the
Greenland shelf are cold (Rudels et al. 2002), but by the
time they reach west Greenland they are generally above
08C in summer and autumn when measurements are
available (Myers et al. 2009). They are sometimes as warm
as 28C in summer and 68C in autumn at su 5 27.0. (Less
dense polar waters can be considerably warmer still but are
not part of the mixing line containing fjord basin waters.)
Temperature variability in East/West Greenland Current
polar waters therefore impacts the thermal boundary
conditions of Jakobshavn Glacier.4 However, as Myers
and Ribergaard (2013) proposed to explain the warming of
Disko Bay polar waters around 1997, a shift in the fraction
of West Greenland Current polar waters compared to
Baffin Current polar waters entering Disko Bay would also
bring about major temperature changes, impacting not just
the above-sill waters in Ilulissat Icefjord but also the basin
waters.
Temperatures in Disko Bay/Ilulissat Icefjord have not
remained uniformly high since their steplike change in
the late 1990s that triggered the massive response of
Jakobshavn Glacier. From 2008 to 2013, Disko Bay/
Ilulissat Icefjord waters were as warm as they likely were
in 1998 and 1999, except in 2010 when Ilulissat Icefjord
was in a cooler mode, which has occurred at various
times since at least the 1980s. In 2000/01 and 2004–07,
Disko Bay/Ilulissat Icefjord basin temperatures were
likely in a cool to moderate state.
The huge seasonal temperature cycle on UpModIrmW
isopycnals in the West Greenland Current is never adequately sampled by CTD profiles and likely is aliased
in the variability of the quasi-annual CTD surveys. The
temperature minimum of this cycle must occur early
each year; the fact that CTD surveys off southwest
Greenland take place in midsummer means they do not
observe this minimum. It is therefore impossible to
confidently isolate the cold seasonal signal due to the
West Greenland Current from the steadier cold signal
of the Baffin Current in order to attribute cool Disko
Bay/Ilulissat Icefjord years to a shift in provenance
4
It is ambiguous whether a typical East/West Greenland Current
polar water parcel maintains a relatively constant salinity during its
journey around Greenland, being warmed by surface fluxes, or
whether West Greenland Current polar water parcels are actually
the product of mixing between very cold and very low-salinity PSW
and pure Irminger Current waters where they meet south of
Denmark Strait. In the first case, the fjord basin temperature could
be sensitive to changes in summer air–sea heat fluxes in the
Greenland boundary currents, and in the second case it would be
more sensitive to changes in mixing at the density front between
the East Greenland Current and Irminger Current.
JANUARY 2015
GLADISH ET AL.
rather than to interannual variability within the West
Greenland Current. (The Davis Strait moorings over the
Greenland shelf/slope sample all year, but these moorings are possibly heavily influenced by the Baffin Current, so the ambiguity remains.)
Keeping in mind the limitation of our dataset in the
face of these natural modes of variability, we used
summer CTD data between Cape Farewell and Disko
Bay to obtain our third major result: a categorization of
all summers into three categories. First, in some summers,
Disko Bay in the fjord basin density range was essentially
the same as in the West Greenland Current.5 In these
years, whether Jakobshavn Glacier was in contact with
WFjW, CFjW, or something in between was mainly determined by temperature shifts of the mixing line joining
Irminger Current waters and low-salinity waters on the
Greenland shelf. Second, in some years, Disko Bay was
cooler than equally dense West Greenland Current waters by 0.58–1.08C.6 At least in 2010, when there was good
mooring coverage in Davis Strait, there is strong evidence
that the provenance of Disko Bay changed (partially) to
the cooler Baffin Current. Third, in summer of 2009,
Disko Bay was significantly warmer than West Greenland Current waters. This may have been because of
a delayed arrival of West Greenland Current waters because of unusually low-density waters on the west
Greenland slope pushing the critical su 5 27.3 isopycnal
below the depth of the Egedesminde Dyb Sill in early
2009. In the remaining years, agreement was ambiguous
or data were insufficient to classify.7
The dynamics that control the degree to which Baffin
Current waters spread over the west Greenland shelf are
unknown. Myers and Ribergaard (2013) point out that
potential vorticity contours tended to cross Davis Strait
more post-1997 than pre-1997. Since potential vorticity is
constant along streamlines (in the absence of diabatic
fluxes and friction), this shows that, post-1997, Baffin
Current waters were more likely to flow south over Davis
Strait rather than to be deflected and flow toward the
mouth of Egedesminde Dyb, following bathymetric
contours to avoid vertical stretching. This does not,
however, explain why less deflection occurred post-1997.
c. 2010 anomaly
We cannot entirely rule out meteorological forcing
over Baffin Bay in winter of 2009/10 as the cause of the
cool fjord anomaly of summer 2010. It is conceivable, for
instance, that reduced sea ice over the west Greenland
5
1990, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2007, and 2008.
1996, 2003, 2004, and 2010.
7
1991–95, 1997, 2005, and 2011.
6
61
shelf between Davis Strait and Disko Bay along with
a weak West Greenland Current led to either anomalous
cooling of West Greenland Current waters entering
Disko Bay or, somehow, the penetration of Baffin
Current waters onto the west Greenland shelf.
It appears more likely, however, that a freshwater
pulse from the Canadian Arctic into the Baffin Current
in late 2009 to 2010 was responsible for the cool 2010
fjord waters. The fresh anomaly in the upper 250 m of
western and central Davis Strait appears to have shifted
the Baffin Current eastward in early 2010, bringing cool
BBTherW close enough to the west Greenland shelf to
mix with West Greenland Current waters and producing
CFjW that flowed toward Disko Bay. The freshwater
pulse from the Beaufort Gyre that freshened the Baffin
Current in 2010 could, we suggest, also have caused the
low-salinity anomaly in the West Greenland Current in
early 2011 (Fig. 4), delayed because of the longer journey around Greenland. This would be an independent
pathway by which wind stress changes over the Arctic
Ocean can affect variability of Ilulissat Icefjord waters.
Shifts in the NAO index have been associated with
shifts in Disko Bay/Ilulissat Icefjord temperatures
(Holland et al. 2008). The cool Disko Bay/Ilulissat Icefjord anomaly of 2010, however, cannot be attributed to
the isolated negative NAO index anomaly in 2010. If the
NAO shift of the 1990s can be used as a guide for estimating the advective delay, the low NAO index of 2010
is more likely responsible for the record warm waters we
found in Ilulissat Icefjord in 2011 and 2012.
The oceanic boundary condition for Jakobshavn
Glacier is a product of the interplay of two boundary
currents (the Baffin Current and East Greenland/West
Greenland/Irminger Current system) and complex bathymetry; it is potentially sensitive to atmospheric
forcing from the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic.
Given the large seasonal variability observed in Davis
Strait, the greatest mystery is that the variability of
thermal forcing at Jakobshavn Glacier was not greater
than it has been. To gain predictive skill for interannual
ocean thermal forcing at Jakobshavn Glacier, it will be
necessary for models to have an adequate representation of the inputs to the Greenland boundary currents
and the Baffin Current, correct representations of
mixing across the sharp fronts associated with these
currents, and a correct representation of the dynamics
of the seasonally varying and topographically controlled flow across the west Greenland shelf into Disko
Bay.
Acknowledgments. NYU observations at Ilulissat
were supported by NSF Office of Polar Program Grants
ARC-0806393 and ARC-1304137, NASA Polar Programs
62
JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
Grant NNX08AN52G, and NYU Abu Dhabi Center for
Global Sea Level Change Grant G1204.
APPENDIX
Quality Control for Davis Strait moorings
For each year-long mooring time series, the following
procedure was iterated up to five times. First, using the
samples with jSA 2 SA j less than the 71st percentile, we
fit a quadratic T1(SA) to those temperatures and salinities. Next, using the best-fitting 71% of those samples,
we obtained a new best fit curve T2(SA). The function T2
captures how the ‘‘central half’’ of the full time series
clusters in T–SA space. Then residuals for all the samples
were found and those samples with jT 2 T2(SA)j larger
than the 99.9th percentile were automatically removed,
along with samples with jSA 2 SA j larger than the 99.9th
percentile. To detect more subtle outliers, we constructed the percentile function p( f ) equal to the residual jT 2 T2(SA)j below which the fraction f of samples
are found. The term p( f ) is generally nearly linear for
f , 0.5 but grows rapidly for f close to 1.0 when there are
extreme outliers. Fitting a line to p( f ) for 0 # f # 0.5 and
evaluating this line for f 5 0.99, we obtain a value p99.
When p(0.99) . 4 3 p99, we interpret this as saying that
there is a cluster of at least 1% of data points that are
outliers. All samples with jT 2 T2(SA)j . 4 3 p99 were
therefore removed and the procedure was repeated.
Otherwise the procedure terminated. This procedure
removed very few points in moorings with high variability but removed questionable segments for deeper
moorings with an otherwise tight T–SA relationship.
These segments may correspond to times when the
conductivity cell was contaminated, for instance.
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